FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT OFF SEASON - PAGE 5

More than 300 people gathered Wednesday night at North School Park for the Arlington Heights Community Band's first outdoor concert of the year. The theme of the concert, played by the park's lighted fountain, was "Best of Broadway," with highlights from "Showboat" and a tribute to composers Rodgers and Hammerstein, as well as more contemporary selections from Andrew Lloyd Webber. The concert band has about 65 members ranging in age from 14 years to 88-year-old baritone horn player, Glenn Rabuck.

"Sex and the City" has wrapped up its latest season, and we're just sick about it. The thing is, we love writing headlines with "Sex and the City" puns, and if we do it now, it'll seem so last season! So to get it out of our system, here are some punny (or not so punny) headlines and the stories that might have accompanied them. (Don't worry, there'll be more where these came from when Season 5 starts in June.) Tex and the city. President Bush comes to town. Tex-Mex and the city.

By Don Pierson. Don Pierson covers the National Football League for the Tribune | September 6, 1998

Denver and Green Bay sound ready to repeat their Super Bowl trips. Even if they didn't always look it in the preseason, they still believe they have what it takes. In light of the problems elsewhere, they are sitting pretty. "I'm not really concerned about defending any title," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "What we did last year is really unimportant right now. Our preparation on a day-to-day basis is getting ready for New England." Shanahan takes the day-to-day mantra more seriously than most.

For the last five years, Dan Pechan has gently rolled into summer by taking the roads less traveled in Schaumburg. Instead of hopping into his car to head down six-lane highways and busy streets, Pechan climbs on his bicycle to pedal along the village's bike paths. He isn't alone in his adventure. Last weekend, about 200 cyclists joined Pechan for the ninth annual Fahrrad Tour Von Schaumburg, a six-mile trek through the village's neighborhoods and parks. For Pechan, the ride has become a family tradition.

Michael Jordan has experienced a recurrence of the tendinitis in his left knee that bothered him in last season's playoffs and may have to undergo surgery after the season, sources close to the Bulls and Jordan confirmed Tuesday. The surgery is said to be minor and would involve removal of a spur, procedures similar to what both John Paxson and Bill Cartwright had after the 1989-90 season. But the implications for Jordan and the Bulls are considerable: - How will it affect Jordan this season?

Those indomitable Bears of old will be back in 1990, Mike Ditka vows. And if the dismayed coach has his way, the Bears will be back in their Lake Forest training camp working out throughout much of the offseason. "If it means staying up here in Lake Forest more, I think everybody has to make the commitment and the sacrifice to do that," said quarterback Jim Harbaugh, who joined his teammates in a final team meeting Wednesday. "(Ditka) said we`re going to set up a conditioning program in March that will include weightlifting.

The city's Transportation Department on Friday laid off its entire workforce of seasonal construction workers for the first time in years, in a move linked in part to the city's budget crisis, officials said. Though layoffs of seasonal workers in the winter months are common, officials said typically about 65 of the approximately 490 workers are kept on to help wrap up construction projects. Transportation Commissioner Miguel d'Escoto said no skeleton force was retained this year because of the budget problems and because a concerted effort was made to get as much work done as possible in the last seven months.

Little moves can make huge differences. The Detroit Tigers made one of those last winter, signing free agent shortstop Adam Everett for $1 million, and it has helped transform them into the early front-runners in the American League Central. They are playing at U.S. Cellular Field this week, and by Thursday the disparity in improvement between Jim Leyland's Tigers and Ozzie Guillen's White Sox could cause Ozzie to blow a gasket. That doesn't mean Leyland won't also combust.

Shattered Globe Theatre Company continues its "Around the Globe" staged reading series that revisits its greatest hits with "Judgment at Nuremberg" at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. The company's season also includes full productions of "Orpheus Descending" and "Her Naked Skin. " For more details go to shatteredglobe.org . Why go: Original cast members from the Shattered Globe production will be joined by Peter Less, who was a courtroom interpreter during the Nuremberg trials.

PAU, France (Reuters) - Pierrick Fedrigo left a rotten season behind him on Monday when he won the 15th stage of the Tour de France in Pau, the site of his last major victory two years ago. The Frenchman outwitted his breakaway companions to ride the last six kilometres with American Christian Vande Velde, whom he easily outsprinted in the final stretch. Fellow Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, winner of the 10th stage, finished third in the short 158.5-km ride from Samatan, in which the peloton anticipated Tuesday's rest day by taking it leisurely in the finale after a nervous start.